Hugh Montgomery

Hugh Montgomery is Professor of Intensive Care medicine at University College, London (UCL), where he also directs the Institute for Human Health and Performance.

His work has focussed (although not exclusively) on the use of genetic tools to understand human physiological responses to environmental stimuli, as a means to explore their dysregulation in complex disease states. He thus reported the first association of a genetic variant with human physical performance. He has since described the role of genetic variants in influencing the human cardiac, metabolic and musculoskeletal responses to exercise. In systems biology, his work has explored the roles of tissue and cellular renin-angiotensin systems in health and disease. He also has a strong interest in the human adaptive response to hypoxia- being science lead for the 2007 Caudwell Xtreme Everest Expedition, and publishing on the population genetic aspects of high-altitude adaptation. He has authored over 160 peer-reviewed papers.

Outside academia, Hugh is an experienced diver, and was part of the team that raised Henry VIII's sunken warship Mary Rose from the Solent. He also worked on sites abroad, most notably an Etruscan vessel that sank in 621BC off the west coast of Italy.

Hugh also holds a Category X Skydiving qualification, and is an active mountaineer, having climbed in the Alps, Himalayas, and Andes. He is also a published children's author, and an occasional ultra marathon (100 km) participant.